Dual probes
Meteorologist takes on advocacy role after the death of her in-laws
Cuomo accuser’s lawyer says attorney general should condemn the “shadow investigation” of groping claims by the governor’s administration.
To Fox News Channel’s Janice Dean, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is a liar and a criminal. He blames others for his “disastrous decisions.” He needs to resign — no, that’s not enough.
“He needs to go to jail!” she thundered on “Fox & Friends.”
Dean isn’t a political commentator; she’s Fox’s senior meteorologist. In the past year, though, a searing loss has transformed her into a fighter for families who believe that a Cuomo-backed policy encouraging the transfer of COVID-19 patients into nursing homes was a deadly error.
Dean’s advocacy raises ethical questions. She’s also made some dubious public claims about the impact of Cuomo’s nursing home order.
“She is certainly a passionate and articulate spokesperson on this matter,” said Jeffrey Mccall, a media ethics professor at Depauw University. “But it is also clear that Janice is using her profile as a Fox News Channel personality to engage in advocacy.”
March and April 2020 were a nightmare time in New York, with the new coronavirus spreading wildly. The timing was particularly cruel for Michael and Dolores Newman, the parents of Dean’s husband, Sean. Michael Newman, an 83-year-old former firefighter, was in a Brooklyn facility with dementia and other issues. Dolores was in assisted living on Long Island, and hoped her husband would join her when his health improved. But he died March 29, a few hours after Sean got a call saying he wasn’t feeling well. Dolores, 79, died on April 13.
Looking into the deaths, the family was flabbergasted to learn of the Cuomo administration’s directive — five days before Michael Newman’s death — that nursing homes could not deny admission to someone solely because they had COVID-19. The policy was expanded to cover assisted living facilities six days before Dolores Newman died.
New York was desperately worried about running out of hospital space then. Cuomo insisted that CDC guidelines were being followed.
By May, the order was rescinded. Stories have since emerged about the lengths to which Cuomo’s administration went to conceal the number of virus deaths among nursing home residents.
Putting potentially contagious patients near some of society’s oldest and most vulnerable populations made no sense to Dean. Last month she wrote a story for Fox News’ website titled, “Cuomo’s COVID nursing home policies robbed my in-laws of their 60th wedding anniversary.”
Dean, who is the weather forecaster on “Fox & Friends” and has been with the network since 2004, said her bosses have been fully supportive.
“Obviously, it’s a position that is probably a little uncomfortable for them because I’m the meteorologist and all of a sudden I’m into this role of being an advocate,” she said. “But at the end of the day, my family was affected. And I feel like that is an important role to play if there are not people that have a voice in this.”